A web based search engine is a common tool employed by users of the Internet to find and explore web based content. A user enters search terms into a search engine, and the search engine finds relevant web pages based upon the specified criteria. Once the relevant web pages are found, the search engine displays the search results to the user. Typically, the user is provided with a list of links to web pages with relevant information and text based excerpts of the content at the linked web page. A second method of displaying search engine results uses “thumbnail” images of the content of individual web pages, displayed in conjunction with the link to the web page and associated text excerpt. A thumbnail image of web page content is a miniaturized picture of content from the HTML page at the corresponding URL.
Shopping sites in particular tend to make substantial use of images of products identified in search requests. Some shopping sites present a display in which images of products matching the user's search request are listed in a static format. To the right of each image is a link to a product purchase page for the identified item. The price of the product is then displayed to the right of the link. Some sites further display below the item price a rating for the merchant offering the product. The user is typically provided with options for sorting the search results such as sorting by relevance, sorting by price (low to high), sorting by price (high to low), etc.
Regardless of the specific display format for the product search results, the search results do not necessarily present what the user really wants. Although the shopping site may provide the user with what are believed to be the items most relevant to the search request, the user is typically presented with one or two items from each merchant represented in the search results. To determine whether a particular merchant has additional items that may be of interest, the computer user must leave the search results page and navigate the merchant's web site to find additional items. Typically, the user must enter a new search request at the merchant's site to find the additional items. The search results are presented in a format particular to the merchant's site and the user may be required to further navigate the merchant's search results to actually find items of interest. The user must then complete this process for every merchant that may have items of interest.
Another problem with shopping and other search sites that display images of items matching the search terms is that they do not develop a complete history of the user's session. To assist users with remembering what they viewed while at the shopping or search site, the sites typically create a history of “recently viewed” items from items that the user selected from the search results. When the user leaves the shopping site to view other products or items from other web sites identified in the search results, the shopping or search site's tracking features and functionality are no longer operational. A merchant's site may provide a “recently viewed” feature and maintain a list of items similar to the shopping site “recently viewed” list but the merchant's list is independent of the shopping/search site list. Once the user leaves the merchant's site, the “recently viewed” list disappears. The user's browser may track the user's navigation at the merchant site, but it typically records every page that the user viewed rather than the specific items that the user viewed.
Shopping sites and other search sites that display images of items relevant to a user's query limit a user's ability to find and purchase or otherwise select the item or items they really want. First, they typically select only a few items from each of the sites that may have relevant items. Second, they do not facilitate transitions from the shopping site to the merchant sites that may have many more items of interest than the ones appearing in the results list. The sites also do not track the user's navigation at the additional merchant sites that the user may decide to visit. Finally, they do not track a user's item selections during a session, including those selections made while navigating a merchant's site.
There is a need for a shopping or search site that allows a user to view all or substantially all of the items from a site that has items matching a user's search criteria. There is a need for a shopping or search site that provides search results by facilitating transitions between the shopping or search site and multiple merchant sites that may have items matching a user's search criteria. There is a need for a shopping or search site that tracks a user's item selections during a session and that tracks not only selections made while navigating the shopping or search site but also while navigating a merchant's site. Finally, there is a need for a shopping or search site that tracks a user's selections at a merchant site to facilitate the user's return to sites visited and items viewed during the session.